2 Quick Questions: Incra Sled & Which plane

I have used the Incra 5000 miter sled for over a year now and find it to be very accurate and easy to use. It is very easy to align and produces the same accurate angle time after time (No matter the angle) . I believe if you search this site, you will find a video review of the Incra Miter Express. If I was starting my shop from scratch, I would purchase one again, based upon my own experience with it.

I am trying to choose between the Incra and the Kreg and am going to watch this thread closely for feedback (especially should someone have experience with both.

Drew

-- Drew, Pleasant Grove, Utah

You cannot go wrong with the LN Low Angle Block Plane. They are pretty nice.

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

Hi Jeff,

There are a few miter gages / sleds on the market that are very accurate. Don’t buy because of the pretty colors. (Unless you plan to accessorize) LOL

Regarding the issue of a plane, a low angle skew plane is very handy. If you haven’t spent the time tuning your stanley plane, I suggest you do so.

The difference between a tuned plane and one fresh out of the box, is like night and day.

Lee

-- by Lee A. Jesberger http://www.prowoodworkingtips.com http://www.ezee-feed.com

Oh and something else to try would be a Hock Blade and Chip breaker on your favorite stanley plane. Somewhere around a $70 upgrade.

I’ve been shopping Craftsman Studios and they seem to offer decent discounts on quality stuff.

http://www.craftsmanstudio.com/html_p/hockblades.htm

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

Jeff
The Veritas Low Angle Jack is a fantastic plane for the cash.
Phil

Hi, Jeff,
I have an Incra miter gauge. I use it every day. In fact, it’s the only one I use. As you have seen I have a whole rack of planes. Lee is right and Wayne is right and Phil is right. I’ve considered all those planes in a high dollar model. I’ve also considered one of the high dollar stuffed smoothers. When ever this urge strikes me, I re-tune one of my planes and feel how smooth the cut is from a freshly tuned iron and go back to work. Some day I’m going to be rich and will indulge myself but for now….........maybe one of Phil’s models.
Drew, While I have a shop full of Kreg, I would stay with the Incra.

-- Thos. Angle, Owyhee Design, Oregon

Thanks, I think I’ll keep an eye out for L. Ang. Block Planes on Amazon or Toolcrib. I hear that LN and Veritas are nearly identical so I’ll wait to see who has the first discount offer in the near future.

I like the sled’s/guages, but I still don’t see the advantage versus a quality shop built sled. It also looks fairly simple to make a great fence for a standard miter guage. The shop built stops, tracks, and extension capability looks easy enough to make. Maybe I’ll borrow one and get some first hand knowledge.

-- Jeff, South Carolina

Not to hijack this Thos but are you saying that Incra has more history, can’t improve on perfection? or that it really works better based on experience. I have no experience here and know that Incra does have more of a name and more history but am wondering… You know both blue and red go great with my black sawstop;-)

-- Drew, Pleasant Grove, Utah

Hey Jeff,

I’m not sure if you saw this blog entry, but you may get some idea of the Incra system…

http://lumberjocks.com/jocks/mot/blog/1172

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)

When I bought my Incra I looked at all the guages at Woodcraft. I really liked the Jessom sliding table but couldn’t quite see how it would work with my right hand saw. I’m sure any of them are very good. I suppose price entered into it as well. I think there was a sale on the one I got. I can assure you it can be more accurate than I am.

-- Thos. Angle, Owyhee Design, Oregon

Also, the October Wood magazine issue has a review of miter gauges and sleds. Jessem was one of the top miter gauges and the other was perhaps incra. I will have to check. The sled was the Dubby sled from inline industries that you see pitched at the woodworking shows.

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

I have the Incra Miter Express with an Incra 1000SE Miter gauge. I can’t imagine not having the 1000SE Miter Gauge, but I can and often do live without the Miter Express. Not that it isn’t a great sled, but I can’t honestly say that it is that much better than my shop made sleds. The Miter Express can be set up for either a right or left tilt TS – but you can’t use it to cut 45 degree cuts (on the edge of a board).

So, if you have a good cross cut sled that you are happy with, save your money. If you are looking for a GREAT Miter Gauge – I highly recommend the Incra 1000SE. I’m afraid that I don’t know much about the hand planes – maybe someday I will get interested in them.

-- Bill - "Suit yourself and let the rest be pleased." http://www.cajunpen.com/

Jeff:
I’ve got the Kreg miter gauge. It’s been a fantastic improvement over the one that came with my tablesaw. However, the Incra looks like it’s got a few more bells and whistles and is a little better made even though I’ve never gotten my hands on one physically. Besides, If you could get one with black knobs instead of gold, it would come close to matching your school colors…lol.

-- Carl Rast, Pelion, SC

I’ve got the Jessem and it is a great gauge if your going that route.

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

I forgot to mention that I also use a 36” shop made sliding cut off box and a slideing double 45 miter sled.

-- Thos. Angle, Owyhee Design, Oregon

I’m sold. The sleds and guages look too pretty to pass up. Yes, I am happy with my cross cut box. I crosscuts square and cuts at 45 with ease. It doesn’t do anything in between but the odd angles are a small percentage of my cuts. I missed the article in October in Wood Magazine. I’m going to have to dig through the stack. Thanks for that Wayne. Mot, your link was on the money. Nice video by the way.

I’m planning on getting a “baby” open ended drum sander as they are becoming more reasonable and small shop oriented. I believe the one I like was in the $500’s last I saw. I think I’ll hint for the sled for ho ho ho time.

-- Jeff, South Carolina

In wood, the Jessem and the Incra both got top tool award. The downside of the Incra was that it required a tool (included) to adjust the fence. Jessem stuff is great, but as a Canadian Company, their Canadian retailers really jam you on the price of it. However, I love my Incra and use it on every project. The mitre guage does come out of the sled, but I’ve never found a need to take it out.

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)

Another consideration I just now started thinking about was that the sled’s could interfere with some mod.’s I’ve made to the saw. It’s a right tilt Grizzly 1023 with normal sized rails. I keep the longer rails to the right of the blade tucked under a counter unless I need the wide cut. This prompted me to use the left wing for a router insert instead of the right as most would do. I took a chance and machined the cast iron wing myself since I was going to replace it anyway and it machined easily to accept my router. My crosscut box was designed to work around it. The other sleds would most likely require me to remove or drop the router bit. For some reason, I don’t like to change bits (explains why I have 4 routers) so I might have to play with some set up ideas.

-- Jeff, South Carolina

I recently made some frames in a triangle shape and had trouble getting the 30 degree miters cut accurately with my stock miter gauge, so I purchased the Incra and got it on Amazon for around 78.00 delivered. Check through the LJ site. LJ will get a bonus off everything sold through their portal to Amazon.com. The “tool” that Incra requires is a simple allen key. The one they supply has rounded tips so it will work at an angle. I have the Incra 1000 fence and love it. Unlike the Jessem, there is nothing that can be lost! I think those little brass dohickeys they use to set the angle would end up rolling somewhere under my workbench, or worse, in the dirt outside. I thought it better to stick with the Incra, which has all the parts attached.

I use my incra on my bandsaw & table saw. It is around 109.00, now, at Amazon, which is still way cheaper than the Jessem. Maybe it will go on sale soon, but who knows. Just keep checking the Amazon site

I also got the Incra precision rules set. They are way cool for layout. I am able to precisely mark a resaw line without the pencil jumping off mark!

God Bless,
Hawg

-- Saving barnwood from the scrapyards

Thanks Hawg. Seems like everything comes with an allen key now-a-days. Guess I’m young, but I first saw a rounded allen key a year or so ago and wondered why all are not made that way. I’ll have to look at Amazon for a deal. I try to use a few of my woodworking sites as links to Amazon to help out for the free content. I typically go from here or Marc’s Whisperer site. Never hurts to throw a commission to the people behind the scenes.

-- Jeff, South Carolina

I guess the woodworking “gods” are smiling on me. As this thread shows, I’m really trying to dig up some info on sleds and/or miter upgrades. I was at Lowe’s picking up a weed eater part and saw a copy of Wood and Woodworker’s Journal on the rack. Both magazines review and rank about a dozen miter gauges. WJ gives more opinion from the author, whereas Wood charts more specs. WJ has the Incra 3000SE or the JessEm Mite-R-Excel as co-top picks and claimed that they equally perform. Wood didn’t review the 3000SE. Instead they ranked the 1000SE as being co-top tool with the JessEm. Wood also ranked 4 sleds with the Dubby Single Left as top tool. The Kreg faired very well in both Mags as well and given that it is $100 less than the winners, its not a bad pick. Wood asked its staff to answer the question, “What’s the best tool you’ve ever bought?” Bob Huriter (chief tool and technique editor) said his Kreg Gauge. Strong case for the Kreg.

On the plane topic, on of the staff said his best tool purchase was his Veritas Apron Plane. Help me out with the difference b/w that and a block plane. Both are low angle and designed for the same purpose as far as I can tell. The apron plane is slightly smaller. It costs only $75 whereas the block is in the neighborhood of $150.

-- Jeff, South Carolina

Jeff,
The apron plane would be handy to carry in apocket for little tuneups. I don’t see it as a replacement for a good block plane. Just too small. However, little planes have been around for ever and are sworn by by many. this is just my own opinion. The other thing is that I have big ol’ meathook hands and a block plane seems small to me.

-- Thos. Angle, Owyhee Design, Oregon

The other difference between the two planes is the $150 version has an adjustible mouth. If you look around at flea markets, you should be able to find an old stanley adjustable mouth plane (9 1/2, 60 1/2, 65, etc.) in the $10 range. I passed on a great $10 9 1/2 a couple of weeks ago when I was wondering around the local flea market. Ethan and David have tuned these guys up and used them.

http://lumberjocks.com/jocks/David/blog/1114
http://lumberjocks.com/jocks/RedHeadedMerganser/blog/630

On the miter gauge/sleds front, I have both the Jessem and the Dubby and can recommend both.

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

I watched a recent podcast on using planes. Link The presenter but a lot of emphasis on adjustable mouths. My biggest frustration with planes is that I tend to let the plane chatter. I always attributed this to a dull blade but I now think that it is moreso the clearance between the blade and sole. Makes sense to close the gaps as you would on any other tool.

-- Jeff, South Carolina

Jeff,

Maybe your chatter was a dull blade or a soft grip or going against the grain. Some times it will help a chattering plane to switch to a Hock iron which is thicker more like the old Bedrock irons. I don’t have an adjustable mouth plane so I can’t comment on them. Another thing to check is how much iron is protruding below the chip breaker. You don’t need much. Also make sure the cap iron is tight. When I can see through the shaving and it is the full width I’m happy.

-- Thos. Angle, Owyhee Design, Oregon

Thicker blades help alot even in a block plane. Hock blades are a good upgrade option. The Stanley #65 in this photo was $23 in an antique store. With a hock blade, it performs as well as the LN it is sitting next to.

Both of these are low angle planes. The front knobs loosen to allow you to adjust the mouths on them.

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

As far as a good plane what you do with it makes a big difference. You wouldn’t want to use your block plane on a giant table top. I would suggest a good low angle block plane and a bench plane, something like a number 3 or 4. As far as brands I love my stanley number 4 from the late twenties although i did add a hock blade. If you really want a magical handplane experience shell out the cash for a Lee Nielsen. I bought a broze number 3 and fell in love. They are hand cast and of a superior quality to anthing else I own or have used. BTW chatter could also come about from improper blade depth and improper blade angle. If your throat doesn’t adjst try adjusting the frog (the base the blade sits on)

-- Just for the Halibut